![2005 Fabrik von Scheibler](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/2005_Fabrik_von_Scheibler.gif)
Karl Wilhelm Scheibler ( pl, Karol Scheibler, 1 September 1820 – 13 April 1881) was a German-born Polish industrialist, businessman and textile manufacturer.
Biography
Scheibler was born in Montjoie (today
Monschau
Monschau (; french: Montjoie, ; wa, Mondjoye) is a small resort town in the Eifel region of western Germany, located in the Aachen district of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Geography
The town is located in the hills of the North Eifel, within the ...
) in the Prussian
Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg
The Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (german: Provinz Jülich-Kleve-Berg) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1822. Jülich-Cleves-Berg was established in 1815 from part restored and part newly annexed lands by the Kingdom of Prussia from Franc ...
into a family of textile fabricants. He attended school in Monschau and
Krefeld
Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, i ...
and received a practical education at his uncle's
Worsted factory at
Verviers
Verviers (; wa, Vervî) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium.
The municipality consists of the following districts: Ensival, Heusy, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Verviers. It is also the ...
(
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
). In 1839, he worked for
Société anonyme John Cockerill
Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA.
Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...
, a well known producer of machinery construction at that time.
Because of the riots of the
Spring of Nations
The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...
in 1848 Scheibler decided to leave Germany and moved to
Ozorkow in
Congress Poland
Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...
, where his uncle, Friedrich Schlösser, had operated a textile factory since 1816. After Schlösser's death he became its commercial director. Scheibler married Anna née Werner, a niece of Schlösser, on 16 September 1854. In 1852, Scheibler and his partner Julius Schwartz bought a plot at
Łódź
Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...
and started to build a machinery factory. In October 1854, Schwartz sold his share to Scheibler for 10,000
ruble
The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union.
, currencies named ''rub ...
s, making him the sole owner of the factory.
In 1855, Scheibler founded a spinning mill with 34 frames and a steam engine of 40
horsepower
Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...
. In 1857, Scheibler employed 180 labourers and earned a turnover of 305,100 rubles in 1860. Scheibler made large profits after cotton prices in Europe increased because of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
and sold his stock at triple the price.
[EUbuildit]
He became known as the "King of the Cotton and Linen Empires of Łódź".
In 1870, 1,911 employees worked in his factory, which was the third largest (9.3 percent) cotton producer of Poland.
Scheibler's factory continued to prosper and he bought several smaller mills in the districts of Źarki and Księży Młyn. After a fire destroyed the factory at Księży Młyn in 1874, Scheibler rebuilt it with 88.000 spindles and built his own "Kingdom" of Księży Młyn with houses for 321 families, a fire station, schools, shops and a hospital
[ Scheibler was known for his social engagement and supported the foundation of a municipal credit association, the Commercial Bank of Łódź (Bank Handlowy) in 1872 as well as the construction of a ]Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
and a Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
Church.
In 1880, he transformed his enterprise into a stock corporation with a share capital of 9 million Ruble.[Urząd Miasta Łódź, ''Księży Młyn'', Łódź 1998, p. 23 ]
Scheibler died on 13 April 1881 in Łódź and was buried at the Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
Cemetery of Łódź in a mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...
designed by the Warsaw architects Joseph Dziekonski and Edward Lilop.
Awards
* 1870 Order of the White Eagle[
* 1876 Gold Medal in ]Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
* 1878 Great Gold Medal at the Paris World's Fair
* Order of Saint Stanislaus
The Order of Saint Stanislaus ( pl, Order Św. Stanisława Biskupa Męczennika, russian: Орден Святого Станислава), also spelled Stanislas, was a Polish order of knighthood founded in 1765 by King Stanisław August Ponia ...
First and Second class
Cultural associations
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the ...
's movie '' The Promised Land'' was filmed inside Scheibler's Palace, which is today the location of the Cinematographic Museum of the National Film School in Łódź
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
.[
The figure of the German industrialist Heinz Huntze, a character of ]The Brothers Ashkenazi
''The Brothers Ashkenazi'' (1936) (Yiddish: די ברידער אַשכּנזי ''Di brider Ashkenazi'') is a novel by Israel Joshua Singer. Written in Yiddish, it first appeared serially in the Jewish daily Forward between 1934 and 1935, af ...
, is loosely based on Karl Wilhelm Scheibler.
References
External links
Scheibler's palace at Łódź
Kinomuzeum.pl
showing some inside views of Scheibler's Palace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheibler, Karl Wilhelm
1820 births
1881 deaths
People from Monschau
Businesspeople from North Rhine-Westphalia
Businesspeople from Łódź
German emigrants to Poland